Wails, panic, and confusion sweeps Ugandans almost every month as suspected arsonists set fire on schools properties worth million of shillings including children’s lives perish.

The incidents and causes of schools fires puzzle the Police, NGO’s and all the people of Uganda at large up to this moment.  A total of over 50 pupils have succumbed to school fires since Feb 2010.

Under the circumstances it is a miracle that several children, who are being housed in the burnt schools and dormitories, survive the inferno. As the fire flames rages through the school buildings, several pupils and students try to scamper for safety. But not all of them manage to escape, so they get burnt to death in the process. The fire breaks school buildings when the school administrators and the children are unaware. Some of the school administrators told our informers that many times fire break out at a time when they are asleep, and there are no neighbours to quickly come to their rescue.

The Inspector General of Police Lt. Gen. Kale Kayihura says that police detectives have followed various clues and their investigations have yielded some important information.

The police files indicate that the school fires are now rampant in the country because some of the school administrators and teachers fail to supervise the schools well and the police fire brigade department responds to the fire late. Some of the schools fences are damaged which makes it possible for intruders to harm the children. The police have also reportedly leant that the rampant land grabbing going on around the country is a result of some of the school fires. It is said that the rich people with big connections in the government use that advantage to grab land from the poor people and as a result the former owners of the land use fire to punish the people who might have grabbed their land. Other sources in Uganda police say that some schools are burnt as a result of jealousy from competing schools and internal wrangles among the schools management.